Jordan Bourque's Biology Wikispace! Homework posts in chronological order from 1-71. Chameleons2. My View on Stem Cells3. The Hot Zone - 14. The Hot Zone - 25. The Hot Zone - 36. The Hot Zone - 47. The Hot Zone "WHOA" momentsPersonal posts in chronological order from 1-111. Gene Splicing2. The Amazing Egg Laying Mammals3. Sloths4. SARS5. Venus Flytrap6. The Crab Eating Macaque7. The Human Vertebral Column8. Mules9. What are in Hot Dogs?10. The Hot Zone Spin off post(Located with the Homework "WHOA" moments post)
Homework Post #1
So, for my little research project, I chose to do something on chameleons, since we are doing a study about cells currently. Many of you are probabably suprised that these two subjects have a relationship, but infact, they do. You see, chameleons have some, lets say, out of the ordinary cells, which is why they can change colors, and you cant. They go by the name of called chromatophores. These specialty cells live in layers under the outermost skin of the chameleon.
There are three basic layers to the chromatophores. These are:
Yellow and red layers, called the xanthophores and erythrophores layers
The reflective/blue layer called the iridophores or guanophores layers
The black/intensity layers
The way these layers work is as if the cells were baloons. If red wants to be shown, the top layer of the cells (the red layer) would expand sideways, so it is visible in bulk. If the chameleon wanted to be completely black, the top two layers of the chameleon's cells would be thin, and almost invisible, and the botom layer, would be expanded. Isn't that cool? Anyways if you wanted to know more about the chameleons, take a look at my citation.
Photo Citation: (n.d.). Chameleon. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.wildherps.com/images/herps/standard/070504008PD_chameleon.jpg Homework Post 2 - My Personal Views on Stem Cell Research First of all, please remember that these are my views from my research, and the way I think is best for society. This is not just because I had the same topic, or that I am targeting other specific groups of different cultures, religions, or thoughts. I mean no harm during my writing, for they are just my personal views. For my stem cell research project I was researching, and role playing the representative of the Jewish population. After I was done all of the research, I completely agreed with just about everything. The Jewish society believe that people don't actually become "alive" until they are passed through the womb during birth. This plays onto a lot of their views on stem cell research, because most of the research requires "killing" the baby in the womb to obtain the materials for the correct stem cell research. The conflict between the majority of society, and the Jewish society is that you cant kill something that isn't alive. This means that they don't have any conflicts with any type of stem cell research, including reproductive cloning. Again, I agree. People should have the right to be able to research into these things, but I also believe that it may cause problems in the future. If you think about it: You would have to determine on who is the clone, and who is not. Tagging them is definitely not the answer, and owning them is slavery. They would have a mind of their own, but would look exactly like you. It would cause criminal problems, as you couldn't tell the criminal from the clone he bought/made. I currently have no direct solutions to this predicament, but I still feel that cloning would benefit society, as a whole, very much. Now I'm not saying that reproductive is a great idea to jump directly into, but the rest of the stem cell research should definitely be able to be tested, and researched, even according of the Torah. The Torah is like the Jewish bible, and it says that human life is above all else, meaning that if you have to discard non-living embryos to research how to make peoples problems go away, there's no reason in the world that it should go untested. Again, I also feel the same way. These are the ways I feel, and understand the world around me. I believe that stem cell research, in any form, should definitely be taken, at any risk, and at any cost. Its just the way I feel we could improve society in the greatest way possible. Homework Post - 3 The Hot Zone Part One The book starts off with an amateur naturalist named Charles Monet. He lives by himself, with a housekeeper in a small bungalow near Mount Elgon. During the book he ends up dying from the Marburg virus he picked up from who knows where. The book makes that very clear. We dont actually know where he got the virus from, but the only clue is that he visited a cave in Mount Elgon with his "friend" and they might have come in contact with it there. This happens in January 1980.
This book doesn't end there. There are many characters in this book that show that the outbreak of a virus affects many people very easily. Nancy Jaxx is the next character introduced in the story. She is a married mother of two children, and their father is in Texas for the military. Nancy almost contracts the Ebola virus, and this shows just how insanely dangerous this virus is. There is a classification the book tells us that these viruses (ones without vaccinations, or cures) are called. This is: level 4 hot agents. When Nancy almost contracted the Ebola virus, it turns her life upside down from shock. In the end, however, she got lucky.
The Ebola virus is completely lethal and kills 9/10 people that contract it. It makes you puke up black vomit, and makes your body literally disintegrate within itself. Your brain turns into a half-liquid substance, your liver, stomach, and lungs as well. You also vomit everywhere, so the virus spreads massively from person to person. Here is a picture to show just how bad it can get:
Mr Yu G was the next, and one of the final main characters to appear in the book. He was the first recorded case to come down with the new virus called Ebola Sudan. Again, people arent too sure of where he contracted this virus from, people still have their suspicions. In the end, he eventually died while spreading it around to other people. He actually roamed around the city while sick, trying to look for a hospital in a taxi. This virus had a 1/2 death rate. Eventually, and thank goodness for it, the outbreak ceased, and nobody really knows the reason for it.
The Ebola Zaire strain of virus was even worse than the Ebola Sudan strain. The Ebola Zaire was tracked all the way back to one of the Yambuku Mission Hospital’s patients. Most of them got infected because they were unsanitary, and were sharing needles. Sister M. E. was a nun at the Yambuku. She ended up becomming extremely sick because she was taking care of people with the same virus. Her nurse ended up becoming sick and dying as well as her.
Homework Post - 4 The Hot Zone Part Two Part two wasn't as good as the first part of the book, but still was incredibly good. The second part starts off within the city of Reston, Virginia. There is a monkey house within the city where thousands of life monkeys for testing are sent for business reasons. These monkeys are known as the "Kah" monkeys, or the crab monkeys. They are cheap, easy to poach, and aren't endangered. All is well. That is, until the monkeys start getting sick. At first they believe that it is only contagious to monkeys, but that soon changes. More monkeys started getting the disease, and started to think that is was something different... something along the lines of simian fever, or Marburg.
Just by the uncertanty that it could be Marburg, mt USAMRIID was alerted, and they hit the spot quickly. They immediately had an executive meeting, and determined it was Ebola Zaire. After that, the monkeys were re-examined, and so were the humans. They finished Part 2 with that. They were re-examining the animals, and keeping you on the edge for Part 3. Citations: (n.d.). Crab monkey. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/31/Crab_Eating_Monkey_in_Monkey_Forest,_Ubud_Bali.JPG Homework Post # 5 - The Hot Zone Part 3
Within the beginning of Part 3 in the book, it refers back to the infected monkey house, which is in Reston. They have now planned out a situation of what to do to this deadly virus. Jerry Jaxx sets up a team of people who are completely qualified to contact the Ebola virus that has been causing all of this damage to the monkeys. Not too long after the plan had started, people started hearing of the danger involved, even though the team that was assembled did not want to give anything that would scare the public away. It ended up, that the only way to get rid of this virus, was to eliminate all of the monkeys within the monkey house, and get rid of the bodies. Seeing as though this could be taken as inhumane, he gave them shots of T-61 to put them down, and then the bodies were bagged, and loaded to be put away. They soon found out, however, that this type of Ebola could only infect monkeys and was airborn. After all of this occurred, the team disinfected the whole building, and they ended up gassing the whole area. They used special crystals, and a sunbeam to change it into formaldehyde gas. After the gas was released, the Ebola Virus could not survive. Within the next few days they decided that they completely sterilized the building, and the process was complete. Part 3 Ended by saying that nothing could survive that much destruction to a single virus, and that it was completely safe. Homework Post #6 - The Hot Zone Part 4 As I was reading this section of the book, I read about the part where Richard Preston actually goes to explore Kitcum Cave himself. I have never heard of an author actually go do that himself. He gives you a glimpse of his past, and tells you about his childhood in Africa. They also go on to relate the Ebloa virus to HIV, and how that has spread sort of the same way. They said that they wanted to stop it before it got any worse, and spread in massive quantities. Richard enters the cave, with a proper hot zone suit, and does his research. Through the fecal matter, he finds feces, animals, and tracks. He then goes back to the monkey house, back in Reston to conduct more research. He goes back to everything a mess, fine, but a mess. They, at the end of the book, declare that it will come back. That's what viruses do. They come back, better, harder, and stronger than ever before. Homework Post #7/Personal Post #10 - The Hot Zone "WHOA" Moments Within the book The Hot Zone, I have found many interesting things. Within the next few paragraphs, I will explain which items I found interesting, and some things I decided to research in my spare time. Please enjoy :D Okay, so within my first readings, I found out about this thing called black vomit. Gross, I know. It is literally black vomit, mixed with red. This happens because of a virus that is spreading around in the book. This is the infamous Ebola virus. Well, how does this virus make you puke up black liquids? Good question. This is because the virus contaminates the blood cells in your body, and turns your organs into goo. The combination of these two effects create that horrifying black vomit we all adore. In part two, as I was reading, I stumbled upon their realization of what the virus actually is; Ebloa. They finally determined it 100%. My first thoughts were: Is it too late? I mean, They already were handling this virus with little to no protection. This is my second "Whoa" moment within the book, and I still think about it from time to time. Part three was very suspenseful in the fact that they were coming closer and closer to actually curing this hot agent. That is a HUGE deal, and definitely put me on the edge of my seat. The best part of the process, or rather, the part that kept me reading all night, was the sterilization process. It was amazing how they used the crystals, and hotplates to cure the disease, not to mention the decompressed building method was ingenious. I loved how they used what they had to complete the process, it definitely made for a good read. Part four was the last part of the book, and way to go out with a bang. They end the book by turning your life into a horror story; they tell you that this deadly virus will come back, it will hit harder, and it will always be there. That's what viruses do, as we learned in class. It is very difficult to get rid of a virus, because they adapt, and change so fast; that's what makes them dangerous. The book went out with a bang, but my research didn't end there. I enjoyed the book so much I decided to research Richard Preston a little bit more. This is what I found: Richard Preston writes novels that are determined as "dark biology" books. They're mostly about bad things that go wrong in the world, that relate to biology. These books are commonly read as they are intriguing, and completely factual, without any bias. Some of the books that he wrote include The Cobra Event, The Demon in the Freezer, and of course, The Hot Zone. Richard isn't just a writer of novels, he also writes for the New Yorker, and that's where his first novels appeared. They were also translated into 30 languages, because of his popularity. Richard has become so popular, that he has won numerous awards, inculding the American institute of Physics Award for Public Health, and the National Magazine award. As you can see, Richard is a fantastic writer, and he has worked hard to get the popularity he deserves. He writes vigorously, writing many books, and from reading The Hot Zone, I can tell that he is a fantastic writer. He also had a fantastic life, travelling around, researching these dark biological discoveries by himself. It's Exciting! He is definitely an intriguing character himself.
Citations: Richard preston. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://richardpreston.net/about-richard-preston Personal Post #1 - Gene Splicing When I was a child, I always thought that all of the major scientists had at least one super exciting job. For example, Physics has the powerful machinery, like the super-collider. Chemistry blows stuff up! And Biology has gene splicing! Even though Ive grown up a little bit now, I still feel that these statements are true, even today. I also have a great interest in gene splicing, even though I have no idea what it is, or means. All of these reasons are why I am doing this post. Gene splicing is all about taking DNA, and taking it apart to change the base pairs. This is done by using restriction enzymes to cut the DNA apart, then removes a base pair. This leaves two single helix strands of the DNA to be manipulated in any way. After this is completed, the strands of DNA is repaired by an enzyme called ligase. After all of that is completed, you can now say that you have sucessfully spliced genes! Gene splicing is mainly used for curing diseases that are formed by genetic malfunctions. For example, they have done tests on diabetics to make sure they were getting the proper amount of insulin in their bodies. What they did is they took the insulin producing genes from their human DNA and spliced it into plasmid DNA. After that happens, the plasmids are allowed to infect the bacteria surrounding them, and they will reproduce in large amounts, and then insulin is produced from that. This is just one miraculous thing gene splicing can do for the world, imagine all of the other things we could accomplish!
Ever wondered what it would be like to lay an egg? I sure haven't! But I'm sure these two mammals would think about it all the time. There are only two species of animals on planet Earth that lay eggs. These animals are the Platypus and the Echidna. These animals, because they can lay eggs as mammals, are called monotremes.
Echidna
The Echidna looks like a large hedgehog, but in fact, the hedgehog and the Echidna are not even closely related. The Echidna is a relatively small animal, that feeds mostly off of worms, insects, termites, and just generally small organisms you can find in the ground. These creatures have coarse hair and spines on them for some protection from predators. It would be like a human eating an uncut pineapple, its possible, but not too fun to try. There are only two places on Earth that these animals live; New Guinea, and Australia. The Platypus is the other mammal that can lay eggs. They are a mysterious creature, for they have traits of reptiles, mammals, and birds. The Platypus seems like a mild creature, but in fact, they can be a savage killer. They have talons under their webbed paws, that are like snakes teeth. Once they are inside the skin of another animals, they spew out an extremely dangerous poison that can kill small animals, like cats and dogs. If they were to attack a human, we may not die, but will experience a great burning sensation, and bleed out a lot. This animal can only be found in Tasmania, or Australia. These amazing creatures, the monotremes, are the only two animals on the planet Earth that can lay eggs, that are also mammals. That's not the only thing interesting about them either, the both of them are such surprising creatures, so check them out, and think about what it would be like to lay an egg. Strange animals [Web log message]. (2011, Sept 23).
Retrieved from http://www.strangeanimals.info/search/label/mammals Personal Post 3 - Sloths
Sloths are actually amazing creatures that aren't as stereotypical as you might think. Most sloths can move moderately fast if they want to, even though they typically don't. The reason they don't is because they don't want to be attacked by a predator. They don't have very much defense against things that could easily kill them, so they act like a tree and barely move. This also explains the greenish hair that the sloth has. There are only two reasons a sloth would move to the ground. One point, is that he wants to go poop. The other reason is that he has run out of food in his hair, (algae, insects, etc.) so he moves to the ground to go hunting, just like this one did: Sloth Attack That sloth felt threatened, and attacked the woman filming, of course you don't have to watch the whole video, but rather, skip to about 1:25 in. He was actually moving pretty fast for a sloth, which is what I meant at the first of the paragraph.
As you can see, that sloth was not a happy camper. He dug his claws directly into the woman's skin, which just shows how dangerous sloths actually can be. Don't worry, though, because sloths ARE herbivores, so they wont randomly attack you for no reason. Anyways just something to think about, when ever you think about sloths, for whatever reason. (2011). Three toed sloth.
(2011).[Web Photo].
Retrieved from http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/007/cache/three-toed-sloth_737_600x450.jpg
Personal Post 4 - SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
When I was little, I went to Toronto, directly when SARS was going around. Seeing as though I was only a little kid, when my dad said not to touch any of the poles in the subway, I tried to see how many I could possible touch, and then lick my hand afterwards. I wasn't the brightest light bulb in the hardware store... SARS is actually a really dangerous respiratory disease that started to go around in November 2002, in Hong Kong. It spread to 37 different countries in total during the spreading. This horrible disease killed 916 people and infected another 8422 people, giving it a 10.9% death rate. Seeing how fast it spread, and to how many people it spread to, theywere almost about to call it a pandemic, but in the end it was not.
The signs and symptoms of SARS are normally just flu-like symptoms. Symptoms like the common cough, sneezing, sore throats, gastrointestinal problems, fevers, and other common symptoms.
Sars [Web log message].
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_acute_respiratory_syndrome Personal Post 5 - The Venus Flytrap The Venus Flytrap is an amazing creature. It stands out from the crowd, as it is one of the few carnivorous plants on the planet Earth. Some other plants that are carnivorous can be found on the link below. This crazy plant can be found almost anywhere around the world, but is native to North, and South Carolina.
This plant works by having little sensors on the inner sides of its mouth. When these sensors go off, by an insect (or other) contacting it, its mouth snaps shut, and creates a concave. The lobes on the inner sides of the mouth are then stimulated into, literally, creating a stomach out of its mouth. This is where the insect would be digested, and taken in for energy.
The Venus Flytrap lives in places that have little nitrogen or phosphorus in them. This means, bogs, wetlands, and wet savannahs.
The Crab Eating Macaque (scientific name Macaca fascicularis) is a monkey-like animal that lives Southeast of Asia. They are commonly known to eat crabs; however, even though these food sources are available, they usually don't. They are actually omnivores, eating about 60% - 70% fruits and seeds for their diet, the other percentage would be small animals, like: lizards, nesting birds, frogs, and fish. The cool thing about this primates nature, is that they can become something that is called a syanthrope, meaning living off of human resources. Like raccoon, and seagulls, they will take food from garbage, or directly from humans. This can be a passive gathering, or an aggressive sort of gathering.
The Crab Eating Macaques overlap with human activity, and culture over a vast amount of land in Southeast Asia. Its actually so common down there, that it has become a local custom in some places. some of the other areas have been intruded with some conflicts; such as: habitat loss, competition over food, and spacial issues. Some scientists believe that humans and Crab Eating Macaques have actually shared environments since prehistoric times, which I tend to think is actually pretty cool. Citations: (n.d.). Crab eating macaque. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab-eating_macaqueCrab-eating macaque. (2009, 04 09). Retrieved from (n.d.). Crab eating macaque. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab-eating_macaque Personal Post 7 - The Human Vertebral Column The Human Spine, or Columna vertebralis, is a unique structure in the human body, that helps all of the bodily functions to work properly. This chord is actually made up of 33 pieces of vertebrae, and are split up into 5 other groups. These groups are: Cervical, Thoracic, Lumbar, Sacral, and the Coccygeal regions. The Cervical region consists of 7 bones, that are uniquely fragile, and small. They controll the movement of the neck, and the extension of the neck. This would be what is highlighted in red on the figure below. The Thoracic region has 12 bones that are a bit bigger, and hold the structure of the ribs, and gives protection to the heart. The Lumbar region has five vertebrae that helps your waist move, and turn. The Sacral and Coccygeal regions have five, and four vertebrae in them, respectively. They are at the low ends of your spinal chord, and help give structure to your behind, and help you sit properly. After all of this, I hope you learned at least a little about the anatomy of the human spinal chord, and what they are meant to do.
A mule a male donkey and a female horse mixed. The horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromozones. This means that there are Genetic Defaults, and many inconveniences to mixing these different numbers. The most commonly known one, is that they cannot reproduce themselves. One thing to know about mules, if you were to buy or rent one, it that they canbe a lightweight, medium weight, or heavy weight mules. This comes in handy to know because mules are usually used to carry, or lift items across rough terrain for long distances. Hence the term "Pack Mule". There's not too much else to know about mules... You just need to keep in mind that their a mix between a donkey, and a horse, and they eat just about the same things. Now you know what a mule is!
Personal Post #9 - What is in a Hot Dog? This is the question humanity has always asked since the dawn of time; what is a hot dog? and where does it come from, and what is it made out of? Well, you're about to find out!
The invention of the hot dog supposedly not recorded, if anybody finds out, please tell me! -It would be nice to know. Also, hot dogs aren't actually that gross. There is a rumor that they are made out of pig snouts, and scraps that aren't made into anything else. This is completely FALSE. They are actually pork, or beef, and are carefully selected when put into restaurants, and grocery stores. Citations: Hot dogs. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/hotdog.asp
Homework Post #1
So, for my little research project, I chose to do something on chameleons, since we are doing a study about cells currently. Many of you are probabably suprised that these two subjects have a relationship, but infact, they do. You see, chameleons have some, lets say, out of the ordinary cells, which is why they can change colors, and you cant. They go by the name of called chromatophores.
These specialty cells live in layers under the outermost skin of the chameleon.
There are three basic layers to the chromatophores. These are:
Yellow and red layers, called the xanthophores and erythrophores layers
The reflective/blue layer called the iridophores or guanophores layers
The black/intensity layers
The way these layers work is as if the cells were baloons. If red wants to be shown, the top layer of the cells (the red layer) would expand sideways, so it is visible in bulk. If the chameleon wanted to be completely black, the top two layers of the chameleon's cells would be thin, and almost invisible, and the botom layer, would be expanded. Isn't that cool? Anyways if you wanted to know more about the chameleons, take a look at my citation.
Chameleon. (2011, September 21).
Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chameleon
Photo Citation:
(n.d.). Chameleon. [Web Photo].
Retrieved from
http://www.wildherps.com/images/herps/standard/070504008PD_chameleon.jpg
Homework Post 2 - My Personal Views on Stem Cell Research
First of all, please remember that these are my views from my research, and the way I think is best for society. This is not just because I had the same topic, or that I am targeting other specific groups of different cultures, religions, or thoughts. I mean no harm during my writing, for they are just my personal views.
For my stem cell research project I was researching, and role playing the representative of the Jewish population. After I was done all of the research, I completely agreed with just about everything. The Jewish society believe that people don't actually become "alive" until they are passed through the womb during birth. This plays onto a lot of their views on stem cell research, because most of the research requires "killing" the baby in the womb to obtain the materials for the correct stem cell research. The conflict between the majority of society, and the Jewish society is that you cant kill something that isn't alive.
This means that they don't have any conflicts with any type of stem cell research, including reproductive cloning. Again, I agree. People should have the right to be able to research into these things, but I also believe that it may cause problems in the future. If you think about it: You would have to determine on who is the clone, and who is not. Tagging them is definitely not the answer, and owning them is slavery. They would have a mind of their own, but would look exactly like you. It would cause criminal problems, as you couldn't tell the criminal from the clone he bought/made. I currently have no direct solutions to this predicament, but I still feel that cloning would benefit society, as a whole, very much.
Now I'm not saying that reproductive is a great idea to jump directly into, but the rest of the stem cell research should definitely be able to be tested, and researched, even according of the Torah. The Torah is like the Jewish bible, and it says that human life is above all else, meaning that if you have to discard non-living embryos to research how to make peoples problems go away, there's no reason in the world that it should go untested. Again, I also feel the same way.
These are the ways I feel, and understand the world around me. I believe that stem cell research, in any form, should definitely be taken, at any risk, and at any cost. Its just the way I feel we could improve society in the greatest way possible.
Homework Post - 3 The Hot Zone Part One
The book starts off with an amateur naturalist named Charles Monet. He lives by himself, with a housekeeper in a small bungalow near Mount Elgon. During the book he ends up dying from the Marburg virus he picked up from who knows where. The book makes that very clear. We dont actually know where he got the virus from, but the only clue is that he visited a cave in Mount Elgon with his "friend" and they might have come in contact with it there. This happens in January 1980.
This book doesn't end there. There are many characters in this book that show that the outbreak of a virus affects many people very easily. Nancy Jaxx is the next character introduced in the story. She is a married mother of two children, and their father is in Texas for the military. Nancy almost contracts the Ebola virus, and this shows just how insanely dangerous this virus is. There is a classification the book tells us that these viruses (ones without vaccinations, or cures) are called. This is: level 4 hot agents. When Nancy almost contracted the Ebola virus, it turns her life upside down from shock. In the end, however, she got lucky.
The Ebola virus is completely lethal and kills 9/10 people that contract it. It makes you puke up black vomit, and makes your body literally disintegrate within itself. Your brain turns into a half-liquid substance, your liver, stomach, and lungs as well. You also vomit everywhere, so the virus spreads massively from person to person. Here is a picture to show just how bad it can get:
Mr Yu G was the next, and one of the final main characters to appear in the book. He was the first recorded case to come down with the new virus called Ebola Sudan. Again, people arent too sure of where he contracted this virus from, people still have their suspicions. In the end, he eventually died while spreading it around to other people. He actually roamed around the city while sick, trying to look for a hospital in a taxi. This virus had a 1/2 death rate. Eventually, and thank goodness for it, the outbreak ceased, and nobody really knows the reason for it.
The Ebola Zaire strain of virus was even worse than the Ebola Sudan strain. The Ebola Zaire was tracked all the way back to one of the Yambuku Mission Hospital’s patients. Most of them got infected because they were unsanitary, and were sharing needles. Sister M. E. was a nun at the Yambuku. She ended up becomming extremely sick because she was taking care of people with the same virus. Her nurse ended up becoming sick and dying as well as her.
As the first part of the book ends, we are still struggling to find out where this disease came from, but we suspect that it came from Mount Elgon. They set up shop there, in hopes to find the answer to where this deadly virus came from.
Citations:
(n.d.). Black vomit. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.documentingreality.com/forum/attachments/f149/94561d1253913722-ebola-haemorrhagic-fever-rhovictim.003.jpg
Homework Post - 4 The Hot Zone Part Two
Part two wasn't as good as the first part of the book, but still was incredibly good. The second part starts off within the city of Reston, Virginia. There is a monkey house within the city where thousands of life monkeys for testing are sent for business reasons. These monkeys are known as the "Kah" monkeys, or the crab monkeys. They are cheap, easy to poach, and aren't endangered. All is well. That is, until the monkeys start getting sick. At first they believe that it is only contagious to monkeys, but that soon changes. More monkeys started getting the disease, and started to think that is was something different... something along the lines of simian fever, or Marburg.
Just by the uncertanty that it could be Marburg, mt USAMRIID was alerted, and they hit the spot quickly. They immediately had an executive meeting, and determined it was Ebola Zaire. After that, the monkeys were re-examined, and so were the humans. They finished Part 2 with that. They were re-examining the animals, and keeping you on the edge for Part 3.
Citations:
(n.d.). Crab monkey. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/31/Crab_Eating_Monkey_in_Monkey_Forest,_Ubud_Bali.JPG
Homework Post # 5 - The Hot Zone Part 3
Within the beginning of Part 3 in the book, it refers back to the infected monkey house, which is in Reston. They have now planned out a situation of what to do to this deadly virus. Jerry Jaxx sets up a team of people who are completely qualified to contact the Ebola virus that has been causing all of this damage to the monkeys. Not too long after the plan had started, people started hearing of the danger involved, even though the team that was assembled did not want to give anything that would scare the public away. It ended up, that the only way to get rid of this virus, was to eliminate all of the monkeys within the monkey house, and get rid of the bodies. Seeing as though this could be taken as inhumane, he gave them shots of T-61 to put them down, and then the bodies were bagged, and loaded to be put away. They soon found out, however, that this type of Ebola could only infect monkeys and was airborn. After all of this occurred, the team disinfected the whole building, and they ended up gassing the whole area. They used special crystals, and a sunbeam to change it into formaldehyde gas. After the gas was released, the Ebola Virus could not survive. Within the next few days they decided that they completely sterilized the building, and the process was complete. Part 3 Ended by saying that nothing could survive that much destruction to a single virus, and that it was completely safe.
Homework Post #6 - The Hot Zone Part 4
As I was reading this section of the book, I read about the part where Richard Preston actually goes to explore Kitcum Cave himself. I have never heard of an author actually go do that himself. He gives you a glimpse of his past, and tells you about his childhood in Africa. They also go on to relate the Ebloa virus to HIV, and how that has spread sort of the same way. They said that they wanted to stop it before it got any worse, and spread in massive quantities. Richard enters the cave, with a proper hot zone suit, and does his research. Through the fecal matter, he finds feces, animals, and tracks. He then goes back to the monkey house, back in Reston to conduct more research. He goes back to everything a mess, fine, but a mess. They, at the end of the book, declare that it will come back. That's what viruses do. They come back, better, harder, and stronger than ever before.
Homework Post #7/Personal Post #10 - The Hot Zone "WHOA" Moments
Within the book The Hot Zone, I have found many interesting things. Within the next few paragraphs, I will explain which items I found interesting, and some things I decided to research in my spare time. Please enjoy :D
Okay, so within my first readings, I found out about this thing called black vomit. Gross, I know. It is literally black vomit, mixed with red. This happens because of a virus that is spreading around in the book. This is the infamous Ebola virus. Well, how does this virus make you puke up black liquids? Good question. This is because the virus contaminates the blood cells in your body, and turns your organs into goo. The combination of these two effects create that horrifying black vomit we all adore.
In part two, as I was reading, I stumbled upon their realization of what the virus actually is; Ebloa. They finally determined it 100%. My first thoughts were: Is it too late? I mean, They already were handling this virus with little to no protection. This is my second "Whoa" moment within the book, and I still think about it from time to time.
Part three was very suspenseful in the fact that they were coming closer and closer to actually curing this hot agent. That is a HUGE deal, and definitely put me on the edge of my seat. The best part of the process, or rather, the part that kept me reading all night, was the sterilization process. It was amazing how they used the crystals, and hotplates to cure the disease, not to mention the decompressed building method was ingenious. I loved how they used what they had to complete the process, it definitely made for a good read.
Part four was the last part of the book, and way to go out with a bang. They end the book by turning your life into a horror story; they tell you that this deadly virus will come back, it will hit harder, and it will always be there. That's what viruses do, as we learned in class. It is very difficult to get rid of a virus, because they adapt, and change so fast; that's what makes them dangerous. The book went out with a bang, but my research didn't end there.
I enjoyed the book so much I decided to research Richard Preston a little bit more. This is what I found: Richard Preston writes novels that are determined as "dark biology" books. They're mostly about bad things that go wrong in the world, that relate to biology. These books are commonly read as they are intriguing, and completely factual, without any bias. Some of the books that he wrote include The Cobra Event, The Demon in the Freezer, and of course, The Hot Zone.
Richard isn't just a writer of novels, he also writes for the New Yorker, and that's where his first novels appeared. They were also translated into 30 languages, because of his popularity. Richard has become so popular, that he has won numerous awards, inculding the American institute of Physics Award for Public Health, and the National Magazine award.
As you can see, Richard is a fantastic writer, and he has worked hard to get the popularity he deserves. He writes vigorously, writing many books, and from reading The Hot Zone, I can tell that he is a fantastic writer. He also had a fantastic life, travelling around, researching these dark biological discoveries by himself. It's Exciting! He is definitely an intriguing character himself.
Citations: Richard preston. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://richardpreston.net/about-richard-preston
Personal Post #1 - Gene Splicing
When I was a child, I always thought that all of the major scientists had at least one super exciting job. For example, Physics has the powerful machinery, like the super-collider. Chemistry blows stuff up! And Biology has gene splicing! Even though Ive grown up a little bit now, I still feel that these statements are true, even today. I also have a great interest in gene splicing, even though I have no idea what it is, or means. All of these reasons are why I am doing this post.
Gene splicing is all about taking DNA, and taking it apart to change the base pairs. This is done by using restriction enzymes to cut the DNA apart, then removes a base pair. This leaves two single helix strands of the DNA to be manipulated in any way. After this is completed, the strands of DNA is repaired by an enzyme called ligase. After all of that is completed, you can now say that you have sucessfully spliced genes!
Gene splicing is mainly used for curing diseases that are formed by genetic malfunctions. For example, they have done tests on diabetics to make sure they were getting the proper amount of insulin in their bodies. What they did is they took the insulin producing genes from their human DNA and spliced it into plasmid DNA. After that happens, the plasmids are allowed to infect the bacteria surrounding them, and they will reproduce in large amounts, and then insulin is produced from that. This is just one miraculous thing gene splicing can do for the world, imagine all of the other things we could accomplish!
Information:The gene school. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://library.thinkquest.org/19037/therapy2.htmlPhoto: (n.d.). Gene splicing. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2010/12/13/679f6a94-1eb9-461c-9aca-7835d2f403c6.jpg
Personal Post 2: The Amazing Egg Laying Mammals
Ever wondered what it would be like to lay an egg? I sure haven't! But I'm sure these two mammals would think about it all the time. There are only two species of animals on planet Earth that lay eggs. These animals are the Platypus and the Echidna. These animals, because they can lay eggs as mammals, are called monotremes.
The Echidna looks like a large hedgehog, but in fact, the hedgehog and the Echidna are not even closely related. The Echidna is a relatively small animal, that feeds mostly off of worms, insects, termites, and just generally small organisms you can find in the ground. These creatures have coarse hair and spines on them for some protection from predators. It would be like a human eating an uncut pineapple, its possible, but not too fun to try. There are only two places on Earth that these animals live; New Guinea, and Australia.
The Platypus is the other mammal that can lay eggs. They are a mysterious creature, for they have traits of reptiles, mammals, and birds. The Platypus seems like a mild creature, but in fact, they can be a savage killer. They have talons under their webbed paws, that are like snakes teeth. Once they are inside the skin of another animals, they spew out an extremely dangerous poison that can kill small animals, like cats and dogs. If they were to attack a human, we may not die, but will experience a great burning sensation, and bleed out a lot. This animal can only be found in Tasmania, or Australia.
These amazing creatures, the monotremes, are the only two animals on the planet Earth that can lay eggs, that are also mammals. That's not the only thing interesting about them either, the both of them are such surprising creatures, so check them out, and think about what it would be like to lay an egg.
Strange animals [Web log message]. (2011, Sept 23).
Retrieved from http://www.strangeanimals.info/search/label/mammals
Personal Post 3 - Sloths
Sloths are actually amazing creatures that aren't as stereotypical as you might think. Most sloths can move moderately fast if they want to, even though they typically don't. The reason they don't is because they don't want to be attacked by a predator. They don't have very much defense against things that could easily kill them, so they act like a tree and barely move. This also explains the greenish hair that the sloth has. There are only two reasons a sloth would move to the ground. One point, is that he wants to go poop. The other reason is that he has run out of food in his hair, (algae, insects, etc.) so he moves to the ground to go hunting, just like this one did: Sloth Attack That sloth felt threatened, and attacked the woman filming, of course you don't have to watch the whole video, but rather, skip to about 1:25 in. He was actually moving pretty fast for a sloth, which is what I meant at the first of the paragraph.
As you can see, that sloth was not a happy camper. He dug his claws directly into the woman's skin, which just shows how dangerous sloths actually can be. Don't worry, though, because sloths ARE herbivores, so they wont randomly attack you for no reason. Anyways just something to think about, when ever you think about sloths, for whatever reason.
(2011). Three toed sloth.
(2011).[Web Photo].
Retrieved from http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/007/cache/three-toed-sloth_737_600x450.jpg
Are sloths herbivores or carnivores?
[Web log message].
Retrieved from http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Are_sloths_carnivores_or_herbivores
Sloth attack [Web].
(2011).
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kca835UnSJs
Fun facts about sloths [Web log message].
Retrieved from
http://boingboing.net/2010/01/21/four-fun-facts-about.html
Personal Post 4 - SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
When I was little, I went to Toronto, directly when SARS was going around. Seeing as though I was only a little kid, when my dad said not to touch any of the poles in the subway, I tried to see how many I could possible touch, and then lick my hand afterwards. I wasn't the brightest light bulb in the hardware store... SARS is actually a really dangerous respiratory disease that started to go around in November 2002, in Hong Kong. It spread to 37 different countries in total during the spreading. This horrible disease killed 916 people and infected another 8422 people, giving it a 10.9% death rate. Seeing how fast it spread, and to how many people it spread to, theywere almost about to call it a pandemic, but in the end it was not.
The signs and symptoms of SARS are normally just flu-like symptoms. Symptoms like the common cough, sneezing, sore throats, gastrointestinal problems, fevers, and other common symptoms.
If you ever wanted to get your head around what a pandemic actually IS, there is a game you could play, that definitely helped me out with it.Go to: http://www.addictinggames.com/strategy-games/pandemic2.jsp
Sars [Web log message].
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_acute_respiratory_syndrome
Personal Post 5 - The Venus Flytrap
The Venus Flytrap is an amazing creature. It stands out from the crowd, as it is one of the few carnivorous plants on the planet Earth. Some other plants that are carnivorous can be found on the link below. This crazy plant can be found almost anywhere around the world, but is native to North, and South Carolina.
This plant works by having little sensors on the inner sides of its mouth. When these sensors go off, by an insect (or other) contacting it, its mouth snaps shut, and creates a concave. The lobes on the inner sides of the mouth are then stimulated into, literally, creating a stomach out of its mouth. This is where the insect would be digested, and taken in for energy.
The Venus Flytrap lives in places that have little nitrogen or phosphorus in them. This means, bogs, wetlands, and wet savannahs.
Check this link out! Its the list of other carnivorous plants -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_carnivorous_plants#Utricularia
Citations: (n.d.). Venus flytrap. [Web log message]. (2011, Nov 11). Retrieved from (n.d.).
[Web Photo]. Venus flytrap. [Web Photo].
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Flytrap Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Flytrap
Personal Post 6 - The Crab Eating Macaque
The Crab Eating Macaque (scientific name Macaca fascicularis) is a monkey-like animal that lives Southeast of Asia. They are commonly known to eat crabs; however, even though these food sources are available, they usually don't. They are actually omnivores, eating about 60% - 70% fruits and seeds for their diet, the other percentage would be small animals, like: lizards, nesting birds, frogs, and fish. The cool thing about this primates nature, is that they can become something that is called a syanthrope, meaning living off of human resources. Like raccoon, and seagulls, they will take food from garbage, or directly from humans. This can be a passive gathering, or an aggressive sort of gathering.
The Crab Eating Macaques overlap with human activity, and culture over a vast amount of land in Southeast Asia. Its actually so common down there, that it has become a local custom in some places. some of the other areas have been intruded with some conflicts; such as: habitat loss, competition over food, and spacial issues. Some scientists believe that humans and Crab Eating Macaques have actually shared environments since prehistoric times, which I tend to think is actually pretty cool.
Citations: (n.d.). Crab eating macaque. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab-eating_macaque Crab-eating macaque. (2009, 04 09). Retrieved from (n.d.). Crab eating macaque. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab-eating_macaque
Personal Post 7 - The Human Vertebral Column
The Human Spine, or Columna vertebralis, is a unique structure in the human body, that helps all of the bodily functions to work properly. This chord is actually made up of 33 pieces of vertebrae, and are split up into 5 other groups. These groups are: Cervical, Thoracic, Lumbar, Sacral, and the Coccygeal regions. The Cervical region consists of 7 bones, that are uniquely fragile, and small. They controll the movement of the neck, and the extension of the neck. This would be what is highlighted in red on the figure below. The Thoracic region has 12 bones that are a bit bigger, and hold the structure of the ribs, and gives protection to the heart. The Lumbar region has five vertebrae that helps your waist move, and turn. The Sacral and Coccygeal regions have five, and four vertebrae in them, respectively. They are at the low ends of your spinal chord, and help give structure to your behind, and help you sit properly. After all of this, I hope you learned at least a little about the anatomy of the human spinal chord, and what they are meant to do.
Citations:
(n.d.). Gray_111_-_vertebral_column_colored. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Gray_111_-_Vertebral_column-coloured.png
The human vertebral column. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_vertebral_column
Personal Post #8 - Mules
A mule a male donkey and a female horse mixed. The horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromozones. This means that there are Genetic Defaults, and many
inconveniences to mixing these different numbers. The most commonly known one, is that they cannot reproduce themselves. One thing to know about mules, if you were to buy or rent one, it that they canbe a lightweight, medium weight, or heavy weight mules. This comes in handy to know because mules are usually used to carry, or lift items across rough terrain for long distances. Hence the term "Pack Mule". There's not too much else to know about mules... You just need to keep in mind that their a mix between a donkey, and a horse, and they eat just about the same things. Now you know what a mule is!
Citations:
Mules. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule\
Personal Post #9 - What is in a Hot Dog?
This is the question humanity has always asked since the dawn of time; what is a hot dog? and where does it come from, and what is it made out of? Well, you're about to find out!
The invention of the hot dog supposedly not recorded, if anybody finds out, please tell me! -It would be nice to know. Also, hot dogs aren't actually that gross. There is a rumor that they are made out of pig snouts, and scraps that aren't made into anything else. This is completely FALSE. They are actually pork, or beef, and are carefully selected when put into restaurants, and grocery stores.
Citations:
Hot dogs. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/hotdog.asp